The semi-translucent roof allows natural light into the stadium.
The semi-translucent roof consists of more than 1,400 tons of double orthogonal grid steel and approximately 67,000 tons of ETFE membrane, secondary steel, gutters, cross clamps, cable struts, and retractable vents.
The latest, state-of-the-art, NFL venue is home to the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers. The $5-billion project, built on the 300-acre former site of the Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, makes it the largest pro-stadium in the NFL.
SoFi Stadium was built to accommodate 70,000 football fans at games and up to 100,000 people at special events.
“When you see our SoFi Stadium home and the ongoing development surrounding it, you have to marvel at Stan Kroenke’s vision,” said Los Angeles Chargers Owner and Chairman of the Board Dean Spanos. “This is an iconic project, anchored by an iconic stadium, that will not only redefine the City of Inglewood, but it will also redefine the landscape of greater Los Angeles for the next century and beyond. This has been a long time coming, and we cannot wait to usher in a new era of Chargers football on what will undoubtedly be the grandest stage in all of sports.”
The architects and builders say they’ve created the first “indoor-outdoor” stadium, but that classification doesn’t exactly sink in until it’s experienced. What they mean is that SoFi Stadium has a roof — a massive, clear canopy arching artfully from the ground across the entire arena bowl and an adjoining plaza with a separate 6,000-seat performance venue— but the building also is open at each end and on its concourses. The roof is made of material that dissipates heat, and dozens of roof panels can be rolled back to allow in even more fresh airflow.
SACO products were specified by LAM Partner with the participation of our agent Reflex Lightning. Lam Partner and SACO designed a unique pixel integration in collaboration with Pfeifer FabriTec, that attaches directly on ETFE Roof.
With a 5ft pixel pitch and more than 27,000 Saco V-Pix-8, this video canvas offers an amazing and unique point of view in and out of LAX.
SoFi Stadium will hold year-round sports and entertainment events and has already been slated to host Super Bowl LVI in 2022, the College Football National Championship game in 2023, and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2028 Olympic Games.
Specifying Agent: Reflex Lighting Group, Boston
Lighting designer: Lam Partners, Boston
Architect: HKS inc, Dallas
Client: StadCo LA, LLC, Los Angeles
Client rep: Legends Global Planning
General contractor: Turner Construction & AECOM
Electrical company: RMJV
Lighting integrator: Pfeifer FabriTec
Resident teams: Los Angeles Rams & Los Angeles Chargers
Project Specs:
26,995 V-PIX 8
690 V-BRAIN 600
10 Fiber Receiver
2 NANO Processor
V-PIX is SACO's video pixel chain system comprised of puck-shaped chains with eight LEDs in each chain. According to the company's website, these chains are "designed to be suspended independently or integrated inside custom extruded housings with built-in power supplies," according to the company's website.
The nearly 27,000 V-PIX installed for this project were designed with gray bodies to match the roof's gray finish and connected by more than 62 miles of lead and jumper cables passed on and along the roof. Each "puck" was spaced five feet apart – the distance SACO's design team determined would achieve the desired video render following experimentation in the early days of the project.
To attach the pucks to the roof, SACO's design team collaborated with Pfeifer FabriTec – the manufacturers of SoFi Stadium's Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) roof – to design a special clip made of ETFE to attach the cables and the brackets. RMJV, the electrical team working under stadium general contractor Turner-Aecom Hunt, and Pfeiffer worked together to install the setup, with a SACO supervision team on-site testing section by section to ensure everything was properly connected.
Meanwhile, the 690 V-BRAINs – that supply power and data to the V-PIX – are "daisy-chained" together, mounted on the catwalk cluster-by-cluster and on the movable panels. A key part of the system's design was ensuring it could travel with the movable panel without cables getting cut.
The content comes from SACO's Video Processor and the content player, via an HDMI feed that displays any type of content. Fournier said SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park Chief Technology Officer Skarpi Hedinsson's team connected SACO's content player to the stadium's master content player to display the game on the roof.
SACO has been around for 33 years, and while they've accomplished feats like inventing the first LED screen and the world's first LED touring screen (U2 Pop Mart Tour, 1997), successfully completing and implementing this project to make those kinds of aerial visuals possible was no small feat.
Though the production and installation took less than 12 months to complete, plans began forming five years ago, with SACO working with Lam Partners in Boston (lighting design) and stadium architects HKS to determine the feasibility of airing the game on the roof. According to Fournier, the lighting designers saw SACO's past work and wanted to see how they could pull it off.
See our map of stadiums.